Perhaps the most significant and positive news broke on Saturday was regarding Care Homes. Residents who are fully immunised can now go out for short walks with loved ones and meeting in gardens without the need for compulsory isolation for 14 days. For the time being masks and social distancing is still required. I remain very unhappy at the thought of frontline care staff not being immunised against Covid 19.
Yet another hospital fire has caused a further 18 deaths.
If you cannot wait to hug your friends and family get ready as sources are suggesting this will be permissible from 17th May. Masks and social distancing could be scrapped in June. Boris whilst still wanting to be cautious says there is a good chance this will happen.
It is hoped that those fully vaccinated may also the be free to travel within the EU area. This is probably the most risky step to take as we follow the pathway out of lockdown. We still need to protect our borders and everyone from the real risk of mutations or variants you are all aware of.
Demonstrations in Turkey lead to over 100 arrests at a May day march. In London there were ’kill the bill protests’ with only a handful of arrests.
Planes from Germany have arrived in India to distribute oxygen equipment and other medical aid over the weekend. The pandemic in India keeps breaking records, over 4000 deaths in a single day.
Several studies are now suggesting that post exposure isolation could be replaced with 5 days of daily PCR tests. This would be much easier and cheaper to arrange, as well as much more convenient.The total number of vaccines given in the UK has topped 50 million, with over 15 million second jabs now complete.
At Sefton Park in Liverpool tonight there is a gig for 5,000 people who are part of the experiment to be able to restart events, they must have negative PCR done before admission and agree to be followed up afterwards. No masks or social distancing will be required at the event, but are required to and from the venue. Similarly, the snooker championship is also involved in a trial. The crowd for the final must have a negative test before admission and be fully immunised. They must also wear masks but can ignore social distancing whilst watching the event, but again follow the rules on the way to and from the event. There are other similar Public Health trials being run just to measure just how safe it is and when we can resume mass gathering events.
A case of the South African variant has been found in Hounslow. Mass surge testing has started today in the area.
In New Zealand, a group of customs agency staff who flatly refused to have a Covid vaccine have been fired. It is understood that no suitable alternative work could be found for them.
The latest daily statistics published are from yesterday.
1,072,576 Covid tests were done and 1,676 were positive. This is a fall of 19.2% and the positive rate ids now only 23.2/100k.There were only 14 deaths but this is a Bank Holiday, so difficult to register. It is a drop of 31.25% on the 7 day average. The rate remains at 0.2 per 100k.The hospital data shows there were only 1,451 people in hospital. 160 new cases were admitted on 27th April, a drop of 11.2%. requiring a ventilator, the figures continue to drop dramatically, now only 185.
With vaccinations the totals are now 34.5 million 1st doses and 15.34 million second doses. Please go and get yours as soon as it is offered. If you have children or grandchildren waiting for immunisations share this news with them if they need persuading to have a jab.
We remain on track, there is more to come about travel in the days ahead. All remains on course, we must all continue to follow the guidelines and support one another. We do not want a weakest link, so lets all work together and keep one another safe.
Kenneth Hines' WordOfWisdom 